Table 3.
Posterior wealth and polygyny estimates. Values are medians and 90% credibile intervals. The estimates of proportion rich and wealth ratio presented here are calculated using the minimum frequency of men that own 50% of the population's total wealth, after adjusting for age. Our age-adjustment methodology is detailed in the electronic supplementary material. Estimates of polygyny (as per cent of wives with co-wives) are also adjusted for age. The final variable polygyny-60 is a calculation of the empirically observed frequency of wives with co-wives among men age 60 or above. Our use of the term co-wives refers to the frequency of women married to a man who has married or will marry more than once. To calculate these values, however, we are limited to using only a small subset of the data in each population taken from men age 60 and above. This variable serves as a check on our age-adjustment methodology; we observe a strong positive correlation between the completed polygyny estimates and the observed completed polygyny data, ρ = 0.93. The bottom block of estimates are means by subsistence type.
| ID | population | subsistence | wealth Gini | wealth ratio | proportion rich | polygyny | polygyny-60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aché | forager | 0.19 (0.18, 0.24) | 1.7 (1.6, 2.0) | 0.37 (0.33, 0.38) | 0.66 (0.55, 0.74) | 0.8 |
| 2 | Agta | forager | 0.24 (0.24, 0.27) | 1.9 (1.9, 2.1) | 0.33 (0.31, 0.34) | 0.34 (0.27, 0.42) | 0.3 |
| 3 | Aka | forager | 0.18 (0.17, 0.24) | 1.7 (1.6, 1.9) | 0.37 (0.34, 0.38) | 0.88 (0.81, 0.93) | 0.75 |
| 4 | Dolgan/Niaa | forager | 0.47 (0.46, 0.50) | 5.2 (4.6, 6.1) | 0.16 (0.14, 0.18) | 0.38 (0.26, 0.48) | 0.11 |
| 5 | Hadza | forager | 0.20 (0.20, 0.26) | 1.7 (1.7, 2.0) | 0.36 (0.32, 0.36) | 0.67 (0.56, 0.76) | 0.68 |
| 6 | Kung | forager | 0.22 (0.21, 0.26) | 1.8 (1.8, 2.1) | 0.35 (0.32, 0.36) | 0.33 (0.08, 0.56) | 0.18 |
| 7 | Lamalera | forager | 0.34 (0.32, 0.37) | 2.8 (2.6, 3.0) | 0.26 (0.24, 0.28) | 0.19 (0.10, 0.29) | 0.14 |
| 8 | Pumé | forager | 0.21 (0.20, 0.28) | 1.8 (1.7, 2.2) | 0.35 (0.30, 0.37) | 0.79 (0.70, 0.88) | 0.5 |
| 9 | Chagga | horticultural | 0.25 (0.24, 0.37) | 2.0 (1.9, 3.0) | 0.33 (0.24, 0.33) | 0.32 (0.18, 0.48) | 0.17 |
| 10 | Makushi | horticultural | 0.33 (0.24, 0.40) | 2.6 (2.0, 3.2) | 0.28 (0.23, 0.33) | 0.82 (0.68, 0.92) | – |
| 11 | Matsigenka | horticultural | 0.40 (0.34, 0.52) | 3.7 (2.5, 5.2) | 0.19 (0.14, 0.27) | 0.85 (0.71, 0.94) | 1 |
| 12 | Maya [1] | horticultural | 0.38 (0.27, 0.46) | 3.3 (2.2, 4.7) | 0.23 (0.15, 0.31) | 0.39 (0.00, 0.73) | – |
| 13 | Maya [2] | horticultural | 0.22 (0.21, 0.23) | 1.9 (1.8, 2.0) | 0.34 (0.32, 0.35) | 0.26 (0.07, 0.46) | 0.11 |
| 14 | Mayangna | horticultural | 0.51 (0.39, 0.59) | 5.6 (3.2, 8.3) | 0.15 (0.11, 0.23) | 0.91 (0.82, 0.96) | 0.93 |
| 15 | Pimbwe | horticultural | 0.33 (0.27, 0.47) | 2.7 (2.1, 4.7) | 0.27 (0.17, 0.32) | 0.70 (0.65, 0.76) | 0.69 |
| 16 | Tsimane [1] | horticultural | 0.26 (0.24, 0.29) | 2.1 (2.0, 2.3) | 0.32 (0.30, 0.33) | 0.58 (0.46, 0.69) | 0.56 |
| 17 | Tsimane [2] | horticultural | 0.31 (0.28, 0.36) | 2.4 (2.2, 2.8) | 0.29 (0.26, 0.31) | 0.50 (0.38, 0.61) | 0.55 |
| 18 | Himba | agropastoral | 0.65 (0.52, 0.71) | 9.6 (4.6, 13.9) | 0.09 (0.06, 0.17) | 0.98 (0.96, 0.99) | 0.96 |
| 19 | Kipsigis | agropastoral | 0.45 (0.43, 0.47) | 4.0 (3.7, 4.3) | 0.20 (0.19, 0.21) | 0.83 (0.80, 0.86) | 0.89 |
| 20 | Koore | agropastoral | 0.35 (0.32, 0.39) | 2.9 (2.5, 3.4) | 0.26 (0.22, 0.28) | 0.64 (0.46, 0.79) | 0.25 |
| 21 | Maasai [1] | agropastoral | 0.61 (0.55, 0.66) | 8.0 (6.0, 11.3) | 0.11 (0.07, 0.14) | 0.92 (0.86, 0.96) | 0.94 |
| 22 | Maasai [2] | agropastoral | 0.55 (0.51, 0.61) | 6.4 (5.5, 8.2) | 0.14 (0.11, 0.15) | 0.98 (0.96, 0.99) | 0.99 |
| 23 | Sangu | agropastoral | 0.44 (0.38, 0.58) | 4.2 (3.2, 10.0) | 0.19 (0.08, 0.24) | 0.82 (0.72, 0.89) | 0.67 |
| 24 | Sidama | agropastoral | 0.26 (0.24, 0.31) | 2.2 (2.0, 2.5) | 0.31 (0.28, 0.33) | 0.69 (0.54, 0.82) | 0.6 |
| 25 | Sukuma | agropastoral | 0.41 (0.37, 0.46) | 3.3 (2.9, 3.9) | 0.22 (0.20, 0.25) | 0.88 (0.82, 0.92) | 0.86 |
| 26 | Bangladesh | agricultural | 0.69 (0.59, 0.72) | 10.3 (6.1, 12.1) | 0.09 (0.08, 0.14) | 0.29 (0.25, 0.34) | 0.28 |
| 27 | English | agricultural | 0.86 (0.79, 0.89) | 37.3 (15.1, 47.3) | 0.03 (0.02, 0.06) | 0.29 (0.28, 0.32) | 0.25 |
| 28 | Krummhörn | agricultural | 0.77 (0.71, 0.79) | 11.9 (9.0, 12.6) | 0.08 (0.07, 0.10) | 0.44 (0.42, 0.46) | 0.43 |
| 29 | Polish | agricultural | 0.37 (0.37, 0.42) | 3.0 (3.0, 3.3) | 0.25 (0.23, 0.25) | 0.01 (0.00, 0.04) | 0 |
| forager | 0.26 (0.25, 0.28) | 2.4 (2.2, 2.5) | 0.32 (0.30, 0.32) | 0.53 (0.48, 0.57) | 0.40 | ||
| horticultural | 0.34 (0.31, 0.36) | 3.0 (2.6, 3.5) | 0.26 (0.24, 0.28) | 0.59 (0.53, 0.65) | 0.56 | ||
| agropastoral | 0.47 (0.44, 0.49) | 5.2 (4.4, 6.1) | 0.19 (0.17, 0.20) | 0.84 (0.81, 0.87) | 0.88 | ||
| agricultural | 0.67 (0.64, 0.69) | 15.4 (10.0, 18.4) | 0.11 (0.10, 0.13) | 0.26 (0.25, 0.27) | 0.27 |